Eat Crow (Cheap Thrills 6)

Like that wasn’t bad enough, she gestured with her thumb behind her at the sidewalk, making me glad I couldn’t see who was there.

Smiling weakly, I looked to my right to break the awkward eye contact and then groaned. My freaking dad was staring at me with his mouth open and cheeks bright red, holding up the toilet plunger I’d asked him to pick up for me, like he was going to throw it at Pops’ car.

And, oh, it got so much worse the more I looked.

Standing next to him was Logan’s dad, who was staring down at his feet like he was trying to pretend he wasn’t there. It was Logan’s grandad, though, who was the reason that my foot hit the accelerator when the car behind me beeped.

Why? Because he was standing next to Hurst, his head tipped back as he laughed his ass off, waving a pair of shears in his hand, reminding me was headed over to mine after I got off to help me cut back the bushes in the front and back yards.

As soon as I heard that beep, my foot pressed down, and I shot off from my spot…

Right into the back of the car in front of me.

Which belonged to my mother.

I’d been so focused on the conversation with Ava that I hadn’t seen her. I’d later find out she’d been waving and tapping her brake to get my attention, and that pretty much everyone who shouldn’t have heard our conversation about vaginascaping had.

Fifteen minutes later…

“You know, when I asked you to come and see me, I didn’t mean for you to do it like this,” Logan said behind me, where I was standing next to Mom as Dad checked over both our vehicles.

Yes, they were still looking at the damage because that’s what a group of men with nothing else to do did, apparently. One looked and made a noise, then the next one looked, then the next. Then they discussed it and weighed up their opinions, before going back to do it all over again.

The relief at having him there was immense, but I also felt guilty that he’d had to leave whatever he’d been working on since he’d left the house. To be fair, I’d specifically said not to worry him, but I guess Naomi decided he needed to know.

So, spinning around, I face planted against his chest, squeaking when I didn’t encounter him but instead headbutted his body armor vest thingy, which was as solid as a rock.

“Yeah, that probably didn’t feel so good,” he murmured, rubbing my back soothingly.

“It feels like I headbutted a superhero,” I replied, smiling when his chest moved as he laughed. It didn’t feel so great as the vest moved up and down my face, but I had an ear-to-chest front-row seat for his laughter, and I’d had a shitty day.

“Wanna tell me what happened?”

“Not really,” I replied honestly.

Doing that would mean I had to explain how it happened, and hadn’t I suffered enough?

Instead, I changed the subject and poked the pocket on the front of the vest. “Is that a bullet?”

“Nope, it’s a device we attach to the vest with a small light that flashes in the dark. A few months ago, the mayor suggested we keep loose bullets in there instead of the pockets on our pants, but he has shit for brains and doesn’t know what he’s doing. If we got shot and it hit one, can you imagine what would happen?”

I didn’t like that reply at all. “You get shot?”

“It’s happened,” Carter interrupted behind me. “We kind of get judged on the actions of others, so not everyone wants to play with us when we stop them or go to speak to them. Their response tends to be a gun—”

“Or fucking tear gas bombs,” Logan growled, reminding me of what had happened to him not long ago.

Still, it was his job, and I knew supporting him was better for Logan than getting pissy about stuff he had no control over. He was a deputy who worked to keep the town safe from assholes.

“Did you manage to sort out whatever happened last night?”

His arms tightened as he stiffened at the question, but it was Carter who replied. “Fucking Mayor.”

I hadn’t had a lot to do with Dirk Kirkwood, the Mayor of Piersville, since he’d taken up the position, but I remembered him well from when I was a kid.

He was the guy who came out yelling if you cycled down his street laughing, called the police if you were on a skateboard, and advocated for his sons to get high profile recognition here and in the next town over.

Doesn’t sound so bad? I guess not, unless you look at the fact that he’d turned a blind eye to how much shit his sons did and then greased the palms of officials when they were caught. One of them was now a lawyer and a total asshole, and the other one was getting the biggest building contracts in the area somehow.